Transcript Paradigm-Shift: Lap Gap 1

Native American
Landform Poems:
Man in Nature in Man in
Nature…
Littleleaf
Goals of the Unit:



Research a landform and
its history
Apply knowledge of a
Native American tribe to
an original product
Apply knowledge of
grammatical structure to
an original product



Use sensory details to bring a
landform to life
Use personification as a
literary technique
Select specific nouns,
adjectives, and verbs
Task Description:
Select a landform in the region of the Native
American tribe you’ve studied. Imagine that you
have become the landform you have selected. In
doing this, you will be personifying that landform.
Over the course of your long life, what have you
seen? Heard? Smelled? Tasted? Felt? Use
sensory details from your research and your
imagination to bring this landform to life through
the animistic magic of language.
Landform Poem Format:
 5 stanzas
 Each stanza is a sentence
 1st stanza tells where you
are
 2nd stanza tells what
you’ve SEEN
3rd stanza tells what
you’ve HEARD
 4th stanza tells what you’ve
TASTED, SMELLED,
TOUCHED, or FELT
 Last stanza tells how you
are known and by whom


See FORMAT
Stanza 1: Location

Your first stanza tells exactly where you are on the
continent…

The first 2 lines tell WHAT YOU DO…


(Examples of VIVID ACTION VERBS: flow, dominate, reside,
meander, rest)
The last 3 lines tell WHERE YOU DO IT…

Examples of PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES:



Past the Grand Canyon
Into the Gulf of Mexico
Through major cities
Read PREPOSITIONS LIST
 Read student SAMPLE…

Stanza 2: Sight



Your 2nd stanza tells about WHAT YOU’VE SEEN…
This stanza has one subject (“I”), one verb (“have seen”)
and three direct objects (3 unique and different sights
you’ve witnessed)
Use specific nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs to
create detailed and colorful mental pictures!

Read student SAMPLES…
Stanza 3: Sound



Your 3rd stanza tells about WHAT YOU’VE HEARD…
Like stanzas #2 and #3, this one has one subject (“I”), one
verb (“have heard”), and three direct objects (3 unique and
different sounds you’ve heard)
Again, use specific nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs
to create natural sounds in your reader’s imagination!

Read student SAMPLES…
Stanza 4: Taste, Smell, Touch, or Feel



Choose one of the four sense verbs above for the 4th
stanza…
This stanza has one subject (“I”), one verb (“have tasted,
smelled, touched, or felt”), and three direct objects (3
unique and different tastes, smells, or things touched and
felt)
Use specific nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs to
create vivid sensory impressions!

Read student SAMPLES…
Stanza 5: Identity

The last stanza tells how some group of people, animals,
or plants know you….
For example, do you have a nickname?
 Are you known in both a positive and a negative way?
 Try to choose two very different ways of identifying yourself.


Read student samples…
Student sample: Location Stanza

I am the Colorado River.
I flow swiftly and strongly
And gurgle and foam over the rocky bottoms of my banks
 From the massive Rocky Mountains
 Through dry Arizona
 Into the cool waters of the Gulf of California.



Back to Location Stanza directions…
Student samples: Sight Stanza


(Sample #1: Grand Canyon)
I have seen one million visitors each year come to see my fiery
beauty
 And river riders rafting through my veins
 And even Navajo Indians ghost dancing around me.

(Sample #2: Snake River)
I have seen young elks playing with their caring mothers
 And busy beavers building their dams with branches from the land
And even the mysterious and colorful Sun Dance of the Blackfoot tribe.



Back to Sight Stanza directions…
Student samples: Sound Stanza

(Sample #1: Salmon River)
I have heard the swishing of the slowly-swaying grasses
And the ripping of my rushing rapids over the rocky banks
 And even the quiet whisper of the winds above.


(Sample #2: Grand Canyon)
I have heard the rattles of the pink Grand Canyon rattlesnakes
 And the splashing of the babbling river
 And even the faraway beat of the Navajo drums.



Back to Sound Stanza directions…
Student Sample: Smell

I am the Snake River
I have smelled the overpowering, fresh fragrance of the monstrous pine trees
lining my banks
 And the earthy scent of red clay baking under a burning orange sun on my
left and right banks
 And even the distasteful perfume of an agitated skunk that takes hours to fade
 away.


Back to Taste Stanza (Stanza #4) Directions
Student samples: Identity Stanza
(Sample #1: Snake River)
The Blackfoot Indian tribe know me
As the “twisting river”
And a place of danger because of the poisonous black water snakes that hide beneath my
ripples.
(Sample #2: Canyon de Chelly)
Hikers and mountain bikers know me
As a challenging rust-colored place to explore
And the spiritual home of the Navaho.
Back to Identity Stanza directions…
Figurative Language: Personification
Personification is a form of figurative language in
which an idea, object, or animal is given the
characteristics of a person.
 You are personifying your chosen landform when
you give it the ability to see, hear, taste, touch, and
feel…all actions only living beings can do!!!


Back to Directions…